Drawing the lines

Indiana communities pay to study South Shore train expansion

The Chicago, South Shore and South Bend Railroad may be putting down tracks-and that has the backing of several communities in Lake and Porter Counties in Indiana.

Efforts to expand the railroad that runs some 90 miles from South Bend to downtown Chicago have taken another step toward creating two new lines, known as the West Lake Project.

More than a dozen governmental entities-towns and counties-in Northwest Indiana have agreed to help pay for the studies needed before the Federal Transit Administration will consider the expansion plan, which would see the line that has run since 1908 and serves some 12,000 riders a day extend to Lowell and Valparaiso.

"This expansion is vital for the city and the region. Chicago is a huge economic engine," said Valparaiso Mayor Jon Costas. "The more connected we are to it, the better off we are."

Valparaiso will pay two installments of $29,289 toward the environmental and engineering studies-one for each portion of the expansion plan-estimated to cost $1.2 million to $1.7 million.

"What's amazing to me is that you get a municipality like Valparaiso willing to pay for our first study this year," said John Parsons, spokesman for the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, which has operated the railroad since 1977. "That's a study that is only focusing on the extension from Chicago to Munster, and that extension won't help Valparaiso at all. Yet still, Valparaiso was one of the first municipalities on board."

The study for the first phase, from the line's Kensington stop, at 115th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue in Chicago to Hammond and then south to Munster, is expected to begin next year. All that's pending is approval of the House bill sponsored by Rep. Peter Visclosky, whose district includes the South Shore, that authorizes the federal government to pick up half the tab.

The governmental entities' final installment, to study phase two to Lowell on the south and Valparaiso to the east, is due in September 2005. Contributions of the local governments are based on the size of their population and the number of track miles each holds andother factors.

So Lake County will pay the biggest share, $297,722 this year and next. Neighboring Porter County, which has a smaller population and fewer rail miles, would pay $77,278 each year. Among cities and towns, Hammond would pay the most, two payments of $70,777, and Lowell would make just two payments of $10,667.

"Local leadership has come to the fore here in Northwest Indiana to work for something that will truly benefit the entire area," said Visclosky, who mustered the funding.

Costas, mayor of Valparaiso, has been one of the strongest supporters of expanded rail service. Valparaiso is the largest city in Porter County with a population of more than 28,000. But without South Shore service, commuters from Valparaiso to Chicago have to drive about 20 minutes to the Dune Park station in Chesterton for a train ride that averages an hour and 22 minutes.

"We know we are one of the few metropolitan areas around Chicago without commuter rail service. We are sort of a missing link," said Costas . "And we need to change that."

Proponents say the West Lake extension will do everything from providing access to higher-paying Chicago jobs for more Lake and Porter County residents to enticing more folks who work in downtown Chicago to move to Northwest Indiana, according to officials with the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, the group that runs the South Shore.

"There was a story in the New York Times some time ago about the expanded rail service in New Jersey," said Dennis Rittenmeyer, chairman of the Lake County Regional Transportation Authority, president of Calumet College of St. Joseph in Whiting and a strong supporter of increased rail service. "They said in that story that every new rail station is worth about $10 million in economic impact.

"What does that mean for Hobart, Munster or Crown Point? That's what we have to find out to truly convince the people who doubt this project."

The exact impact is being studied by Policy Analytics, a research firm headquartered at the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute in Indianapolis. Results are expected in mid-November.

"Sometimes it's hard to convince people of the economic benefits of a project like this," said William Sheldrake, president of the Policy Analytics. "The benefits don't just happen at those places where new commuter rail stops are situated. They don't happen only along the rail line itself. The benefits become distributed and diffused across the entire economy. It's about the congestion that goes away on a region's roadways. It's about the jobs that are created. That spreads throughout the entire community. It benefits both business and private individuals."